William Russell, born in County Antrim 1846 / Elizabeth Taggart born County Tyrone 1857

Re: William Russell, born in County Antrim 1846 / Elizabeth Taggart born County Tyrone 1857

Staffordstown’s not big. As you will have seen from the census there were only about 11 households there then. The church baptism records usually show a person’s townland. So although you don’t know the names of any other Russells, any with Staffordstown as their address are almost certainly the same family. So worth checking the church records for that.

Also tradition was for a bride to marry in her church, so if they were still in the area, you would expect to see the daughters marrying in the same church 20-24 years after their baptisms. Or you might want to investigate any Russell marriages in the mid to late 1800s, registered in Antrim (civil registration district for Randalstown) on the offchance that they are your family. The couples townlands are normally listed on the marriage cert (as are their fathers and occupations). You can see the indexes free on the Emerald Ancestors site:

Possibly worth checking the local graveyards for Russell graves. (Graves often have the family townland shown). Check Church of Ireland as well as Presbyterian as Presbyterians sometimes used COI graveyards.Not everyone could afford a gravestone of course.